The Buna Shots

This is the story of two internationally famous photographers, the New Zealander George Silk and the American George Strock, who with exceeding bravery in World War II covered the intense fighting between Australian, New Zealand and American forces on one side, and Japanese Imperial forces on the other, in New Guinea and the Pacific. Among their many outstanding photos are one by each that have, like no other, come to represent the New Guinea war-front in the minds of the public. And yet at the time of taking these photos were thought too graphic and authentic for the general public in Australia and the United States to see, and they were censored. This book is about the making of those photos, their censorship and resulting personal and media struggle, and their eventual, consequential and now iconic publication.